Victory and Honor

Wars come to an end. But then new ones begin. Just weeks after Hitler's suicide, Cletus Frade and his colleagues in the OSS find themselves up to their necks in battles every bit as fierce as the ones just ended. The first is political-the very survival of the OSS, with every department from Treasury to War to the FBI grabbing for its covert agents and assets. The second is on a much grander scale-the possible next world war, against Joe Stalin and his voracious ambitions.

This is a wonderfully entertaining addition to the extremely enjoyable OSS series. The author(s) rank at the top of the military-historical fiction genre and this story continues the well-deserved legacy. Scott Brick is one of my favorite narrators possessing a polished ease of delivery that makes any story he reads come to life. This is, as I had hoped for and expected, another carefully researched and detailed narrative. The characters are tightly and skillfully interlaced with the actual historical timeline. I was extremely pleased with the story, the excellent quality of the audio production and Mr. Brick's exceptional skills as a narrator. Highly recommended and a must-read for W.E.B. fans.

You Can't Make This Up: Miracles, Memories, and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television

In this highly entertaining and insightful memoir, one of television’s most respected broadcasters interweaves the story of his life and career with lively firsthand tales of some of the most thrilling events and fascinating figures in modern sports.

The ultimate insider's view of the evolution of US sports broadcasting from the 1960s to today. Ray Porter is an excellent reader with a crisp, clear voice quite close in tone to Al's. I would have been fine with Ray reading the whole book but it's great to have Al in there for some of the big ones, including USA Hockey's "Miracle on Ice" at the Lake Placid Olympics. That one still gives me goosebumps! A great and enjoyable read. Highly recommended.

The Cuckoo's Calling

After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: his sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

Hope After Faith: An Ex-Pastor's Journey from Belief to Atheism

Atheism's leading lights have long been intellectuals raised in the secular and academic worlds: Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the late Christopher Hitchens. By contrast, Jerry DeWitt was born and bred into the church and was in fact a Pentecostal preacher before arriving at atheism through an extraordinary dialogue with faith that spanned more than a quarter of a century. Hope After Faith is his account of that journey. DeWitt was a pastor in the town of DeRidder, Louisiana, and was a fixture of the community. In private, however, he'd begun to question his faith.

A powerful story of recovery from religious indoctrination, and so much more. Jerry tells it like it was and is. For those of us indoctrinated into religion as children, challenging the faith often (usually) leads to painful choices within families and communities. Jerry chose reason and critical thinking over superstition and dogma. More importantly, his work is helping many others to do the same. What I most admire is Jerry's commitment to using his talents for interpersonal communication and motivation to help others see the light of reason. With this book and his many personal appearances, Jerry has shouldered an important role as a leading secular humanist voice. I recommend this book without reservation. Well done, sir!

Rattler One-Seven: A Vietnam Helicopter Pilot's War Story: North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series

Rattler One-Seven puts you in the helicopter seat, to see the war in Vietnam through the eyes of an inexperienced pilot as he transforms himself into a seasoned combat veteran. Soon after the war, Gross wrote down his adventures, while his memory was still fresh with the events. Rattler One-Seven (his call sign) is written as he experienced it, using these notes along with letters written home to accurately preserve the mindset he had while in Vietnam.

This review is limited to the audio version. Mispronunciations litter this audiobook butchering both helicopter and military terminology as well as geographic locations, such as the historic city of Huế. I found this distracting as well as disrespectful to the earnest efforts of the author. I don't intend this as nit-picking. I simply expect (and hope) for better from Audible. The audio format calls for adequate preparation by the production team prior to entering the studio, with particular attention to accurate pronunciation.

That said, Mr. Gross comes across as one of those decent enough sorts, simultaneously coming of age while developing into a competent combat pilot, yet so straight-laced, pious and temperate that he routinely rubbed his commanders the wrong way and alienated himself from his peers. I respect that he was a young man from a somewhat sheltered background placed in a very difficult, life-threatening situation not of his choosing. In this respect, he performed admirably. Still, he seems to have been a bit of an odd-man-out during his brief, but unquestionably heroic, tour of duty in Southeast Asia.

I found the story compelling, thank the author for his service and urge interested readers/listeners to purchase and enjoy the book.

What Every BODY Is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People

Listen to this book and send your nonverbal intelligence soaring. Joe Navarro, a former FBI counterintelligence officer and a recognized expert on nonverbal behavior, explains how to "speed-read" people: decode sentiments and behaviors, avoid hidden pitfalls, and look for deceptive behaviors. You'll also learn how your body language can influence what your boss, family, friends, and strangers think of you.

I've never given a one star review out of hundreds of Audible purchases - but they don't allow zero stars (or minus stars) for which this waste of hard drive space would qualify. Believe this pseudo-science bit of drivel if you wish, but utter drivel it shall remain. I suspect this to be largely a manufactured book deal to supplement the author's FBI pension. Don't expect even the merest whiff of scientific evidence to support his very nearly psychic claims and you shan't be disappointed. To overcome the boredom (and ponderous narration) I found it more informative to attempt to follow the profusion of logical fallacies that permeate this troubling discourse. I so rarely feel that I have wasted a credit (and my time) but, I regret that such is the case. And yes, as many others have so stated, the narration is, at best, quite intolerable. Purchase at your peril.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir)

For fans of Tina Fey and David Sedaris - Internet star Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, makes her literary debut. Jenny Lawson realized that the most mortifying moments of our lives - the ones we'd like to pretend never happened - are in fact the ones that define us. In Let's Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson takes readers on a hilarious journey recalling her bizarre upbringing in rural Texas, her devastatingly awkward high school years, and her relationship with her long-suffering husband, Victor.

Jenny's no Sarah Vowell or Tina Fey but the story is an enjoyable romp through her life. Not a rib splitter but rather a light, easy story with some fun and humorous interludes. This is one of those books that I can't imagine being read by other than the author and Jenny does a fine job of narration. I'd give it a 3.5 overall if that were allowed.

Steve Jobs

Based on more than 40 interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and, as I cannot improve on the many positive comments, I write in defense of the narrator. As a longtime Audible subscriber, I've listened to many of the best (and some of the worst) narrators in the Audible world. Frankly, I find some of the negative comments for this book's narration to be over the top and a few are downright mean spirited. That said, all are entitled to their own opinion. I found the narrator to be well-paced with a clear, pleasant voice and nice inflection, Do not be put off. This is a great book about a true visionary in our own time. Narrator, Dylan Baker, does a fine job with this much anticipated Audible release. Enjoy!

iWoz: How I Invented the Personal Computer and Had Fun Along the Way

Before cell phones that fit in the palm of your hand and slim laptops that fit snugly into briefcases, computers were like strange, alien vending machines. They had cryptic switches, punch cards, and pages of encoded output. But in 1975, a young engineering wizard named Steve Wozniak had an idea: What if you combined computer circuitry with a regular typewriter keyboard and a video screen?

Excellent narration captures the "gee whiz" approach to life that seems to be the core of Woz. Clearly he was and is a kid at heart as well as the extremely intelligent engineer that created the original Apple 1 and 2. Without a doubt, his work helped to revolutionize how people live, work and play on a global scale. What came though for me was that Woz the engineer could neither communicate effectively with non-engineers nor could he envision how to market his products. I can see where some might think the story self-indulgent but it is, after all, an autobiography. Woz, ever the engineer, takes the logical approach of telling his story straight out, make of it what you will. What some find self-indulgent I took as Woz believing in himself and his accomplishments and wanting to get his side of the story on the record. The book was made more poignant for me as I was about halfway though when Apple announced that Steve Jobs had died. Woz was clearly a gifted engineer but without the marketing vision of Jobs, Woz might have remained just another engineer in the backroom. I was a high school student in 1970 and actually used most of the computers discussed in the book. It brought back some great memories. I found it to be a compelling, interesting story very well read by Patrick Lawlor.

Salt: A World History

So much of our human body is made up of salt that we'd be dead without it. The fine balance of nature, the trade of salt as a currency of many nations and empires, the theme of a popular Shakespearean play...Salt is best selling author Mark Kurlansky's story of the only rock we eat.

I must confess that my ignorance of salt was thoroughly exposed. I was both educated and entertained by this book, a great combination!

The fundamental human need for salt has had far greater impact on civilization than I would have ever imagined. This book abounds in fun and interesting facts and historical reference. As reviewer Thomas states quite nicely, "This is one of those books that just opens your eyes to something you never knew."

Contrary to a few reviews that were less than thrilled at the pace of the book or the inclusion of details such as ancient recipes, I found that the book moved at a pace appropriate to the high level of detail and, for me, it is the precisely the extensive detail that makes the narrative so compelling. While it may be enough for some to hear that, "Salt was important in the Roman diet", I found the author's method of illustrating exactly HOW it was important, such as the inclusion of recipes, or formulas, or method for curing fish, meat, etc., helped to integrate the subject matter directly into the everyday lives of our ancestors in a more vivid and meaningful way. I respectfully suggest that the depth and impact of the book would suffer if such details had been left out.

Acclaimed narrator, Scott Brick, does a masterful job of bringing the story of salt to life. The sound quality and audio production is excellent. Highly recommended.

Treason

Lanik Mueller is a "rad" - radical regenerative - a freak who can regenerate injured flesh...and trade extra body parts to the Offworld oppressors for iron. On a planet without hard metals, or the means of escape, iron offers the promise of freedom through the chance to build a spacecraft. But it is a promise which may never be fulfilled, as Lanik uncovers a treacherous conspiracy beyond his imagination.

Loved Ender... Treason, not so much. It is clearly a good solid story that just came off a bit flat for me. I found it a bit rambling and disjointed; it never just grabbed me. OSC has stated that, if he could have done a rewrite, the first person perspective is the first thing he would change. The story line is interesting and extremely creative but did not hold my interest as much as I was expecting. Stefan Rudnicki is one of my top five narrators and his strong narration was the saving grace for me. I'm still a big OSC fan and, based on other reviews, understand that my opinion of Treason does not run with the majority. Can't win 'em all.

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